Work

Modality and negation in the history of Low German

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to study and account for the scopal interaction between modal verbs and sentential negation in historical Low German. A number of proposals concerning the scope of negation in clauses with modal verbs for other languages (mainly English) will be evaluated against the empirical findings from historical Low German. It will be argued that syntactic accounts of this interaction are not empirically adequate, and that a lexical account will have to be complemented by a pragmatic one in order to account for the behaviour and development of some modal verbs.

Source: Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft

DOI: 10.1515/zfsw.2011.007

Author: Anne Breitbarth

Institution: Ghent University

Language: English

Topic: Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: University of Cambridge, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Universiteit Gent, Arts and Humanities Research Council

Awards: G5800102283, G8781065517